MARY ANNING MEGASONGS
Lyme Regis Fossil Festival
Lyme Regis Fossil Festival Schools Programme
Voices for the Future – Mary Anning
May – November 2022
3 Primary School classes each created a
MEGASONG for MARY ANNINNG!
…with a little help from our ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE Workshop Team:-
Frances M Lynch – Director, Singer, Composer
Emma Bernard – Palaeontologist, Curator of Fossil Fish, Natural History Museum
Dr Patricia Fara – Science Historian, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
Karen Wimhurst – Composer
Jack Sewell – Artist
Herbie Clarke – Sound Design
Check out the videos below!
“Mary Anning and Peppermint the Plesiosaur”
by Class 3AR, Chaddlewood Primary School, Plymouth
CHADDLEWOOD CHILDREN SAID
We did a Mary Anning quiz
We looked at fossils, it was great
The coprolite made everyone laugh!
I liked doing the lightbulbs (voice exercise!!)
I liked sharing our ideas about the ichthyosaur
The best things we learnt about were:
The diet of an ichthyosaur
Fossilisation – it turned into stone
The ichthyosaur’s pineapple eye was to see it’s prey,
to help it live in the deep dark water.
Mary Anning was only 12 when she discovered the ichthyosaur
and she always carried her hammer with her
THE TEACHERS SAID
The children really enjoyed it.
It is encouraging fossil hunting.
They felt so proud of the final outcomes.
They have been to various places to fossil hunt.
It allowed some of them to share their passions.
There was excitement that they spoke to professionals.
Many saw opportunities which they hadn’t thought of.
It was amazing to see how a composition was put together.
Thank you to everyone – it has been the most fantastic project!
It highlighted opportunities for music in cross curricular learning.
The project was great for developing confidence.
It has left the children with self-belief in music and perseverance to develop their own ideas.
“Mary Anning and Pterolita the Pterosaur”
by Robins Class, Sparkwell Primary School
The best things we learnt about were:
It takes 200 million years to become a fossil
Mary Anning carried a basket and a hammer
Mary Anning and some of the fossils she found
A pterosaur Dimorphodon that we called Pterolita
SPARKWELL CHILDREN SAID
It was amazing!
We learnt about the process of fossils
We learnt about fossils and palaeontology
We found the fossil poo bit in the song funny
We sang about how Pterolita became a fossil
I was surprised to see how good our fossil was
We met palaeontologists and Electric Voice Theatre
I liked that everyone got a turn
We liked that we sang up for up and down for down
We liked that we could make up the tune for the lyrics
We wrote about how scientists nowadays discover fossils
and look at them in their labs
Mary Anning found really interesting fossils
and took her time to figure them out
How did the project work?
Each class group (Years 3 & 4)
had 4 Zoom Workshops with our team
- Introduction to the singing, composing, palaeontology and the main fossil they would each be investigating: –
Ichthyosaur, Plesiosaur or Pterosaur
- Palaeontology with Emma
- The story of Mary Anning with Patricia
- Fossil Music with Karen & Frances
Then Jack took all the materials to the schools
and they had a fantastic session
in small groups
making their 3D fossils
and drawings
to help Jack create the final films
…..while on zoom
they were recording
the final music for their
MEGASONG
with Frances
You can see pictures of their fossil models below
Finally
Frances & Herbie
set to work editing and producing the music
while Jack
put together all the art work for the film
until each class had their
MEGASONG FOR MARY ANNING
which they shared and celebrated
with the rest of their school
parents and friends
Now you can see their pages on
Minerva Scientifica
